Journal Archives

He hosts the Atheist Experience, of which the suspect was a fan, so he has a reason to speak:

Edit: Feel free to add other responses. This issue is important, and I feel it's important that we don't let anyone else define us in regards to this event. These two people mention that one major criticism that atheists generally have of religion is how violent it is, sso an atheist that acts so violently didn't get that message completely through his head.

Things are also still in motion, and all we really know is that three humans are dead, and the man responsible turned himself in.

The Vatican, which is still struggling with the effects of a worldwide paedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church, discovered two cases of possession of child pornography within its own walls last year, its chief prosecutor said on Saturday.

The Catholic Church has been hit by scandal involving the sexual abuse of children by priests around the world in the past 15 years.
Pope Francis has vowed zero tolerance for offenders but victims of abuse want him to do more and make bishops who allegedly covered up the abuse accountable.

In his report, Milano said Vatican police had investigated "two delicate cases, of varying degrees of seriousness, of possession of child pornography material" by people living or working inside the city-state, which is the headquarters of the 1.2 billion member Church.

The prosecutor gave no details but a Vatican spokesman said one of them involved Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop who was arrested last September in the Vatican on charges of having paid for sex with children while he was a papal ambassador in the Dominican Republic..

I keep hearing about how great the Pope is because he drives a reasonably priced car and lives in a modest apartment. To me, and many others, this behavior is more insulting than comforting (although to many others it's ok because the pope is the one doing it) At the end of the day he still has no financial worries, his car is, I'm sure, in perfect working order, he will never be stranded on the side of the road, he'll never have to worry about his breaks wearing out, or even if the oil has to be changed. He will never face an eviction notice, or have to choose between getting to work, or keeping the heat on, or food on the table.

He's not "living like the people" he's a tourist putting on the stereotypical trappings of a poor person to make the Vatican look better, and it does more harm than good. When someone in power does things to "act poor" like drive a crappy car, or trim down their belongings to what they can carry, they are a) diminishing the struggles of people who are forced to live that way b) enforcing the stereotype of the poor c) they are doing it for themselves, to make them look better. These actions further the FoxNews narrative that poor people have to be absolutely destitute to be poor, and that they have other means to live their life because hey, the Pope can do it, why can't everyone else? as well as the line that poor people aren't allowed to have nice things, because to be like the poor you have to give up most of your possessions and forms of entertainment until you fit the narrative of poverty.

This isn't exclusive to the Pope by far, I know several well off people who do this stuff, and all those shows about people living off the grid gloss over privileged you have to be to be able to do that sort of thing. , It's a tool used by those in power to diminish the struggle of those they persecute while simultaneously making those they keep down like them better.

There's been a lot of focus, and reframing the debate to focus on what atheists have to do, and what they believe, and what they have to prove. I just wanted to remind everyone where the burden lies, where it has always lain and where it always will. There has never been any proof put forward that has withstood a minimal amount of scrutiny.

Atheism is a rejection of the claim there is a divine being, not a declaration that there is none. All the favorite atheist boogymen have publicly stated that if there were one shred of evidence they would believe, but guess what?

So please, before we keep on with this trend of reframing debates, and resorting to personal attacks and tone policing, accept the burden of proof and either put up or shut up.

Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a Jerusalem church on Friday, despite Israeli police stepping up security around religious sites ahead of a visit by Pope Francis later this month.

"Price tag… King David for the Jews… Jesus is garbage" was spray-painted in Hebrew on the wall of St George’s, a Romanian Orthodox church near an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.

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The Roman Catholic church has demanded Israeli action after Hebrew graffiti reading "Death to Arabs and Christians and to everyone who hates Israel" was daubed on its Notre Dame complex in Jerusalem on Monday.

"The bishops are very concerned about the lack of security and lack of responsiveness from the political sector, and fear an escalation of violence," the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.